Tag Archives: Samsung

Latest UC Browser 9.0 (Signed Java Version) Modified to Remove the Virtual Keypad On Samsung, LG and Other Touchcreen Phones

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Dennis Bournique

I did a post a while ago explaining how to modify Opera Mini's jad file to hide the unneeded touch keypad that displays at the bottom of the screen on some touchscreen phones. The post included a link to the modified Opera Mini. I received a request asking for a copy of the latest signed Java version of UC Browser modified to hide the keypad.

The process for modifying the UC Browser or any other Java app is exactly the same as what was described in the original post:

1.Download the app's jad file to a PC. You can get UC Browser jad files (signed or unsigned ) at www.ucweb.com/English/UCbrowser/platform.html?platform=java

2. Open the downloaded mini.jad with a text editor or Windows Wordpad

3. Scroll to the bottom of the file and paste in the following lines:

Nokia-MIDlet-No-Exit: true
Nokia-MIDlet-On-Screen-Keypad: no
Navi-Key-Hidden: true
UseNativeTextButtons: hide
ReverseSoftkeys: hide
UseNativeCommands: hide
MIDlet-Touch-Support: true
MIDlet-ScreenMode: ROTATE
MIDlet-Landscape-Support: true
LGE-MIDlet-Width: 240
LGE-MIDlet-Height: 400
LGE-MIDlet-On-Screen-Keypad: no
LGE-MIDlet-Display-Mode: both

4. Upload the file to Dropbox.com or another file sharing service that is easy to use in your phone browser. Click here to get a free 2GB Dropbox account (by using this referral link I get an extra 250 MB of storage in my Dropbox which I thank you for).

5. Visit Dropbox with your phone browser and click the modified mini.jad link to download it to your phone.

If that didn't work or you don't have a PC or are just in a hurry, here's are links to the latest signed version of the UC browser as well as some older versions.

Latest Version

UC Browser 9.0 (25-Apr-2013) The latest "full" (non-cloud) UC Browser release. According to UC, new features in it include:

Fast Video and Audio Playing We have designed the Fast Video and Audio Playing feature to break through storage limitation and poor network connection. The new feature allows users to play video files that have been saved to UDisk directly, without having to download those big files to local phone storage. Enjoy the fluent videos watching on Java Phone.
Account Information Saving To make logging-in to your favourite webpages more convenient, we’ve added the ability for you to save usernames and passwords on several websites, such as Facebook and GMail.
Improved User Interface We’ve given our user interface a makeover, optimizing the design to provide an enhancement of user experience. The menus, night mode, operation in touch screen phones and more has been optimized.
Bug Fixes The stability of this version has been increased and there have been numerous bug fixes, such as a solution to the missing Speed Dial issue.

Download the modified UC Browser 9.0 jad at:
wapreview.com/download/UCBrowser_V9.0.0.260_Java_pf70_(Build13042317).jad
Short Link: is.gd/uc90touch

To install, go to is.gd/uc90touch with your phone's browser.

Older Versions:

UC Browser 8.9 (29-Jan-2012) A "full" (non-cloud) UC Browser release. New features include: Incognito Browsing, Improved Search Bar, Select and Copy and Optimized Text Input

Download the modified UC Browser 8.9 jad at: dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.9.0.251_Java_pf70_%28Build13012415%29.jad

Short Link: is.gd/uc89touch To install, go to is.gd/uc89touch with your phone's browser.

UC Browser 8.8 (25-Dec-2012) Another "full" (non-cloud) UC Browser release. New features include: increased download speed, customizable shortcut keys and an improved File Manager.

Download the modified UC Browser 8.8 jad at: dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.8.1.252_Java_pf70_%28Build12122410%29.jad
Short Link: is.gd/uc88touch To install it, go to is.gd/uc88touch with your phone's browser.

UC Browser 8.7 (7-Nov-2012) This is a "full" (non-cloud) UC Browser release. New features include: users can switch between multiple accounts when signing in to a website, long press the OK button to invoke the Actions menu, users can save pages directly without changing the page name.

Download the modified UC Browser 8.7 jad at:
dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.7.0.218_Java_pf70_%28Build12110609%29.jad
Short Link: is.gd/uc87touch To install it, go to is.gd/uc87touch with your phone's browser.

UC Browser 8.6. (20-Sept-2012): This is a "full (non-cloud) UC Browser release. New features in this release are: full offline download support with synchronous status shown in the download manager, you can now preview the images before uploading, "clear all history" option before exiting UC Browser added, new options to disable the virtual keyboard, faster uploads and display of the upload speed in KB/sec while uploading. This version uses the new user interface from the cloud version with different menus for touch screen and non touch screen phones

Download the modified UC Browser 8.6 jad at: dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.6.0.199_Java_pf70_%28Build12092011%29.jad
Short link: is.gd/uc860touch To install it, go to is.gd/uc860touch with your phone browser.

UC Cloud Browser 8.5 (6-Sept-2012): This is first non-Beta version of the UC Cloud Browser, a redesign of the original UC browser optimized for smaller download size and faster page loads. New features in this release are: new user interface with different menus for touch screen and non touch screen phones. Supports copy and paste in the URL bar and all input fields. New screen brightness setting. New share image on Facebook feature. New Game Center free game download store.

I've posted the modified UC Cloud Browser 8.5 jad at: dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.5.0.185_Java_pf83_%28Build12082909%29.jad
Short link: is.gd/uc85touch. To install it, go to is.gd/uc85touch with your phone browser.

UC Browser 8.4 (23-Jul-2012):. Major changes are: simplified theme installation, the traffic statistics display is back, the link to browsing history has been moved to the top of the bookmarks page and a there's a new Tools > Phone menu option for making phone call or send a texts from within the browser. See my review for more about 8.4: UC Browser 8.4 for Java Released With Bug Fixes, New Features.

dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.4.0.159_Java_pf70_(Build12070415).jad
Short link: is.gd/uc84touch

UC Browser 8.3 Alpha (7-Jun-2012): New features include; UDisk cloud based storage and the App Gallery, a new home screen tab providing quick access to UDisk, bookmark backup and restore and the Quick Reads news deader.

dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.3.0.154_Java_pf70_(Build12053010).jad
Short link: is.gd/uc83touch. To install it, go to db.tt/ajY88aHm with your phone browser.

UC Browser 8.2.1 Production (non-Beta) (20-Apr-2012): New features include a built in RSS reader and bookmark backup and restore. See my review for more details.

dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.2.1.144_Java_pf70_(Build12041210).jad
Short link: db.tt/ajY88aHm. To install it, go to db.tt/ajY88aHm with your phone browser.

UC Browser 8.2 Alpha (21-Mar-2012): It features many enhancements and bug fixes see my review for details. This is the latest patch release that adds swipe navigation and fixes a bug that made entering URLs on bada phones impossible:

dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.2.0.132_Java_pf70_(Build12032111).jad
Short link: is.gd/uc82touch. To install it, go to is.gd/uc82touch with your phone browser.

UC Browser 8.0 (1-Feb-2012):

dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.0.3.107_Java_pf70(Build11112416).jad
Short link: is.gd/uc8touch. To install it, go to is.gd/uc8touch with your phone browser.

Posted in Browsers | Tagged Java ME, LG, Samsung, touchscreen, UC Browser, Virtual Keypad | 228 Comments

How To Hide the Opera Mini 7.1 Virtual Keypad On Samsung, LG and Other Touchscreen Phones

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Dennis Bournique

When the Java ME version of the Opera Mini Browser is running on many touch screen phones, an unnecessary virtual keypad appears at the bottom of the screen (image above left). The keypad wastes space, looks ugly and isn't needed with touch aware apps like Opera Mini. The keypad is not part of Opera Mini. It's something your phone adds because it doesn't recognize that Opera Mini is optimized for touch

Here are several ways to get rid of the virtual keypad so your Opera Mini looks like the right hand image above.

I. By using the phone's menu

Some phones have a menu option for getting rid of the keypad. I've only seen it on Samsungs but it may be an option on other brands as well.

Open the folder or menu where you launch Opera Mini. On my Samsung Wave it's called "Games and more".
Look for and tap a button named "Options", "Menu" or something similar or has an icon that looks like a menu, stack of papers or three dots. On the Wave it's the middle button with the three dots in the left hand screenshot below.
In the Options menu (image below, center) look for and tap a button labeled "Use virtual keypad"
On the next screen tap the check mark next to Opera Mini (image below, right) to remove it and then tap the Save button. Now launch Opera Mini and the virtual keypad should be gone

If your phone doesn't have a menu option to remove the keypad continue reading to see if Opera Mini has a fix for your phone.

II. By using an official version of Mini customized for your phone to remove the virtual keypad.

If Opera recognizes and officially supports your phone it should deliver a modified version of Opera Mini that contains code telling your phone to remove the keypad. Opera can only recognize your phone if you download Mini from m.opera.com using the phone's built in browser. If you download Opera Mini from an unofficial source or downloaded it with your PC and copied to the phone using Bluetooth or a cable you have a generic version that's not optimised for your phone.

If you download Mini from m.opera.com with your phone's built-in browser and you still get the virtual keypad, let Opera know so they can fix it in a future release. File a bug report at mini.bugs.opera.com. Also visit m.opera.com/detect with your phone's built-in browser and fill in the form listing the phone make and model.

If you still have the virtual keypad after downloading from m.opera.com with your phone browser and you don't want to wait for Opera to get around to fixing it, which can take months, it's fairly easy to fix it yourself. Read on for instructions.

III. By modifying the Opera Mini jad file to remove the virtual keypad

You will need a PC, some patience and the ability to follow directions in order to modify Opera Mini. If you lack any of those or want someone else to do the work, skip to the end of this post for a link to an already modified version of Opera Mini.

Obtain an official copy of the Opera Mini jad file. You can download the unsigned versions of Opera Mini directlty to your PC from www.opera.com/mobile/download/versions/

The trouble with unsigned apps is that on most phones you will get annoying pop-up messages asking you to allow Opera Mini to connect. On some phones you only get one pop-up when you first start Opera Mini but on others you get pop-ups every time you click a link which makes Opera Mini almost unusable. A few phones won't allow unsigned apps to connect at all.

There are many ways to download signed versions of Opera Mini to your PC but the easiest is to use the Opera Desktop browser which is available for Windows, Mac OSx and Linux. Download and install it from www.opera.com/browser/ Then:

Launch the Opera PC browser
Go to m.opera.com using the Opera PC browser
Click "Other Download Options"
Click "Select Code-Signing Certificate" under "Options for Opera Mini 6.5:" (or under "Options for Opera Mini 4.4:" if you prefer that version)
Click "All Certificates" (works on most phones. If it doesn't on yours try repeating this process with one of the other signed options)
Click "Download Opera Mini 6.5" and save the file (named mini.jad) somewhere you can find it later
Open the downloaded mini.jad with a text editor or Windows Wordpad
Scroll to the bottom of the file and paste in the following lines:

MIDlet-Touch-Support: true
UseNativeTextButtons: hide
ReverseSoftkeys: hide
UseNativeCommands: hide
Navi-Key-Hidden: true
Nokia-MIDlet-On-Screen-Keypad: no
MIDlet-ScreenMode: ROTATE
MIDlet-Landscape-Support: true
LGE-MIDlet-Width: 240
LGE-MIDlet-Height: 400
LGE-MIDlet-On-Screen-Keypad: no
LGE-MIDlet-Display-Mode: both

Upload the file to Dropbox.com or another file sharing service that is easy to use in your phone browser. Click here to get a free 2GB Dropbox account (by using this referral link I get an extra 250 MB of storage in my Dropbox which I thank you for).

Visit Dropbox with your phone browser and click the modified mini.jad link to download it on your phone.

If that didn't work or you don't have a PC or are just in a hurry, here's a link to my modified version of the signed (All Certificates) version of the Opera Mini 6.5 ,jad file:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/mini.jad or http://is.gd/mini65

Updated 7-Jun-2012: Here's a modified version of the new Opera Mini 7.0:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/mini7.jad or http://is.gd/mini7

Updated 20-Sept-2012: If you get out of memory errors installing Opera Mini 7, here's the smaller but less capable Opera Mini 4.4.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/mini44.jad or http://is.gd/mini44

Updated 26-Nov-2012: Here's a modified version of the new Opera Mini 7.1:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/mini71.jad or http://is.gd/mini71

Click any of the above links in your phone browser to install Opera Mini 4.4 or 7.1 with the virtual keypad disabled.

Posted in Opera Mini Tips and Tricks | Tagged Java ME, LG, Samsung, touchscreen, Virtual Keypad | 130 Comments

Samsung Bada's Dolfin Browser

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Dennis Bournique

Dolfin - Google Maps Dolfin - Hahlo4

Here's a look at the capabilities of the Dolfin browser on the Samsung Wave Bada handset that I got at the Bada Developer Day in San Francisco on Tuesday.

Dolfin is a WebKit based browser. Webkit is used as the basis of the majority of smartphone browsers including those from Nokia, Palm, Android, Apple and soon RIM. Although all these browsers are based on the open source Webkit core, as PPK points out, "There is no Webkit on Mobile", instead there are many mobile Webkit implementations with huge differences between them in usability and rendering.

I started by running a couple of HTML5 compatibility tests on Dolfin; the W3C's Web Compatibility Test for Mobile Browsers version 2 and Momac's HTML5 Test, both of which are comprehensive tests of a large number of HTML5 elements, attributes and JavaScript methods.

The W3C test has 12 test cases and Dolfin passed nine for a score of 75%. It failed the <video>, <audio> and Web Workers test. By way of comparison, the Android 2.1 browser scored 67% and Opera Mobile 10 passed 34% of the W3C tests.

Dolfin passed 86 out of 160 of the Momac tests including all parts of the Canvas, Geolocation, Local Storage and Offline Web Application tests. It's main failure areas were again the lack of support for the Video or Audio elements or Web Workers. The Android 2.1 browser scored 118 and Opera Mobile 10 only 33 in the Momac test.

So on paper at least, Dolfin does a pretty good with HTML5 compliance, what of its real world performance and usability? In most areas it's good. Google delivers the iPhone/Android HTML5 versions of Search, Gmail, Maps and Calendar to it, all of which worked very well. Google Search and Maps were able to retrieve and use my location. Google Maps (image top, left) is particularly impressive in Dolfin with quick, smooth scrolling and zooming. It's hard to tell that its not a native app. Google Reader defaulted to the WAP version but I was able to load the iPhone Reader at www.google.com/reader/i/ and it worked perfectly too.

The usability of the Dolfin browser is a bit of a mixed bag. On the positive side, pages seem to load quickly and pinch zooming is exceptionally smooth and accurate. Dolfin doesn't support "Flick scrolling", but pages scroll easily by dragging and there is also a scroll bar for quickly getting to a section of the page or to the top or bottom of the screen. A long press on the screen highlights the current word with a drag bar to enlarge the selection and a context menu to copy it, use it as a Google search query or pass it to the mobile web version of Google Translate. Copied text can be pasted into the URL bar or into other apps including email and messaging. Dolfin supports multiple windows although there is no option to open a link in a new window in the background, one of my favorite Android browser features. However, Dolfin tops Android with good support for the HTML <input> tag's type="file" attribute which adds a "browse for file" button and dialog to a web page. This feature is used by many file and media sharing sites. File browsing on Bada is limited to your photos, sounds and the Wave's "others" folder which is a sort of dropbox that you can copy almost any type of file to from a PC using mass storage mode.

A small thing that I dislike about Dolfin on the Wave is that there is no hardware back button. There's an onscreen Back icon which is always visible in the browser's "Normal" screen mode (image top, left). However Normal mode puts large navigation and menu bars at the top and bottom of the screen. The bars can be hidden by choosing "Full Screen" mode but then it takes three taps to go back a page; tapping the screen displays an up arrow icon (image top, right) which you have to tap again to get the menu with the Back icon.

Unfortunately, JavaScript bookmarklets do not work in Dolfin.

Dolfin - Text fit to width is unreadable Dofin - horizontal scrolling required!

While the Bada Dolfin browser is quite capable and generally performs well, it has one glaring defect that makes it practically unusable for me - when you zoom into a page, text doesn't reflow. That wouldn't be much of a problem if Dolfin used a readable text size at the default zoom level where columns of text fit the screen width. But on every desktop page I tried, if I double tapped the screen to zoom in on a column of text, the font was impossibly small for reading, especially in portrait orientation (image above, left). I could zoom in to get readable text, but then the lines of text became longer than the screen width and required horizontal scrolling to read (image above, right), which I consider unacceptable. Things were a little better in landscape orientation, but even there many pages were difficult or impossible to read without zooming to the point where horizontal scrolling became necessary. As it is, in spite of its generally good performance, feature set and outstanding stability, I find the Bada browser ultimately unusable because of the text wrapping issue. I strongly suspect that this is an early release bug that I hope Samsung will quickly addresses as it ruins an otherwise outstanding browser.

Posted in Browsers | Tagged bada, Dofin, HTML5, Samsung | 40 Comments

Samsung Wooing Bada Developers With Cash, Free Tools, Devices And App Certification

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Dennis Bournique

Bada Developer Day San Francisco

I attended a Samsung Bada Developer Day in San Francisco yesterday. The event, part of a 35 city world tour, was a sold out full house with over 200 attendees. bada (Korean for "ocean") is Samsung's new smartphone platform.

Native bada development is done in C++. The bada IDE for native app development is Eclipse based and is currently Windows only with Apple OS X coming soon. It includes an emulator and supports on device debuggging. The SDK ships with extensive tutorials and several sample programs. Visit developer.bada.com to register for the bada development program and download the IDE.

My own C++ experience is pretty limited. From what I understood from the presentations, development on bada is pretty much standard C++ except that bada for some differences in object creation exception handling.

Bada offers developers quite a few hooks into the underlying OS, hardware and pre-installed apps. For example:

Apps can embed a web browser or map control and launch built in apps like browser or media player.
Mapping apps can use either Google or deCarta as their map provider.
Device location is available to all apps.
There's a "Buddy" API for creating social networking apps that can share the users location and profile information using a bada server.
A social networking services gateway lets apps interact with Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

Bada also supports Bondi web widgets. The bada widget SDK is available at innovator.samsungmobile.com. I was hoping to learn more about building and deploying widgets on bada. The Developer Day presentations covered bada C++ development in considerable detail but there was nothing at all on widget development.

Apps and other content are distributed through an on device "Samsung Apps" store. There's also a web version of the store at samsungapps.com. It doesn't seem to be possible for users to install applications except through the Samsung store. Samsung Apps supports operator billing and will be available is in 100 countries but is not currently available in the US. Publishers keep 70% of an app's selling price even when using operator billing.

Apps must be tested and certified to be distributed through the Samsung Apps store. Test criteria enforce usability, stability, performance and content requirements. Gambiling with real money and "sexual content" where given as examples of prohibited content. Samsung's goal is to approve or reject bada apps within 7 days of submission. Developers whose apps are rejected will receive detailed reports of failed tests including videos demonstrating the problem in some cases. There is currently no charge for testing, certification or to join the the bada developer program.

There's a Bada Developer Challenge with 2.7 million in cash prizes including a $300,000 top prize in each of 8 categories. The dealine for entries is Aug. 31st 2010.

Samsung Wave - Front Samsung Wave - Back

Every Developer Day attendee received a Samsung Wave bada phone. It seems like a pretty nice device. With a 3.3 inch screen, modest 118 x 56 x 10.9 mm dimensions and 118 gm weight, it's a pocket and purse friendly alternative to larger "superphones" like the Nexus One, Evo or iPhone 4.

I found the Wave's UI pretty snappy and the 800 x 480 SUPER AMOLED screen very sharp, bright and vibrant. I didn't experience any the keyboard lag that some reviewers have mentioned. The WebKit based Samsung browser, called "Dolfin" supports Flash Lite and has a built in ad blocker. Like the rest of the Wave software, the browser seems fast. I will be posting a full review of the Wave after I have a bit more hands on time with it.

I tried to go into the event with an open mind but couldn't help wondering if the world really needs another smartphone platform. Certainly as the #2 handset maker in the world with 22.1% market share (#1 in the US with a 29% share), Samsung is a force to be reckoned with.

Developers were told that Samsung's strategy is to use Android for high end smartphones and bada for more mass market devices. Samsung sees bada as a platform to push smartphone adoption to lower price points. The bada Kernel can be either Linux or a RTOS with the bada framework exposing a consistent API regardless of the kernel used. Using a RTOS should allow bada to run on less capable and cheaper hardware.

Provided bada devices can be produced at a significantly lower cost than other smartphones this strikes me as a good strategy. There is a huge gap in capabilities between today's typical feature phones like Nokia S40 devices and even a basic smartphone.

However, Symbian and the BlackBerry OS also have relatively low hardware requirements and both RIM and Nokia are already delivering entry-level smartphones like the Nokia 5230 and Curve 8520 at the near feature phone price of around $200 unsubsidized.

Samsung says 150+ operators in 80+ countries, including Canada and Mexico, will offer bada Phones in 2010 and that emerging markets are bada's key target.

The audience at the San Francisco Developer Event reacted with shocked silence when it was mentioned that no bada devices would be available from US operators in 2010. I spoke to several developers after the event and all said that they were taking a wait and see attitude toward bada at this time, calling the platform a gamble and decrying the lack of US distribution. One developer cited the joy he gets from seeing his friends and family using the iPhone and Android apps he has created, a joy he would not get with bada.

While I don't think US developer support is critical to bada's success, there is a lot of mobile app development talent in the US, talent that will likely continue to work mainly with the iPhone and Android. That means that many top selling apps and games for those platforms won't be ported to bada. I applaud Samsung for reaching out to US developers with presentations, a $2.7 million app contest, Silicon Valley support office and free devices. But I think that without local visibility in the market and in the streets, bada, like Symbian, will be a hard sell to US developers.